Success

“You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.” – Vernon Howard

How to create a personal signature – for free

I love this little personal touch, so I thought I would share it with you…

Here is the link to creating your own signature: mylivesignature.

The wizzard is easy to follow and it only takes a couple of minutes.

I heart your blog

Wow, I can’t believe it!

Ginny from Ginny’s Small Studio has nominated me for a blog award and she enjoys reading my blog. I had no idea.

Thanks you so much, I am honoured (and flabbergasted).

In turn I have to nominate 5 blogs that I enjoy reading.

I heart:

The Wren

Being Brazen

Paper Kitty

Zenabu

Two Kitties

and Ginny’s Small Studio

Please nominate 5 blogs that you enjoy reading and send me the link. I love to read about the blogs that you heart.

My email address is: kerry.henning[at]hotmail.com

Happy Monday!

Foldschool Cardboard Furniture

While researching an article I found this amazing and innovative product Foldschool.

Foldschool is a collection of FREE cardboard furniture for kids, handmade by you. The downloadable patterns can be printed out with any printer. Follow the instructions and assemble a stable piece of furniture.

The mindset of foldschool is to restore design to one of its original missions: to provide a product at an affordable price through a smart manufacturing process.

You can also send in your creations to foldschool here…

I don’t have kiddies, but this is well worth a go. I heart foldschool!

Go with what you know…

I was totally inspired, recently, by an article called the magical ingredients on The Wren Design blog.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the direction in my life and what I should be doing and how I should be contributing to the world. I have been struggling for quite a while with this…

But after reading the article and reading the links (What Startups Can Learn From Haruki Murakami), I had a classic “AHA!” moment…

These were my findings for each point discussed in the article:

1. Find your passion and commit to it

• I love all things crafty, I read so many blogs a day on all things handmade. It is what I love, and it definitely inspires me.

2. Stick with what you know

• I know marketing. Yip, I even have a degree in Marketing Communication and have won an award for my work. I am not bragging, but realising what I am good at has been a long road. Only now, almost a year and a half after the award have I realised that I am relatively good at what I do. Its all got to do with self esteem and confidence.

3. Start even and finish first

• ‘Murakami’s life is a routine. He rises early around 5am and goes to bed by 10pm. He declines late-night dinners and outings. He runs and works on his books daily. He achieves his magic by pushing equally every day.” This extract from the article really made me look at my life and make some changes. “Push equally everyday” has become a mantra that I strive for in my life. It is a huge paradigm shift for me, but I am getting better at it everyday.

4. Never settle and always seek creativity

• I have become a little settled in my comfort zone and I desperately want to break free, seeking creativity and learning new things will definitely crumble my comfort zone…

Therefore, after a few days of deliberation I have decided that I need to help small businesses, especially handmade and craft businesses to market their business/passion. I am working on a website that will be packed with free marketing tips and advice for your small business. I plan to grow and develop a monthly newsletter and eventually expand into consulting and offering unique marketing plans tailor-made to suit specific business needs. I have a wealth of information from communication strategies to financial aspects that are not being tapped into at the moment and I desperately want to share this with everyone that would appreciate it.

My dream is still to write a book, so maybe I should start working on an e-book while I am at it!

Your thoughts?

Back to School

Although I don’t have children and here in South Africa it is Winter and not the Summer School Holidays, this was a really fun project.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have started to follow the handmade network challenges. The theme for last week was ‘back to school’.

I made a ‘Book Satchel’ and a ‘Book Cover’. Both knitted using Elle Homespun wool with a thread of butterfly yarn throughout. I absolutely love the end result…

My photos are getting a little better. Last night I built a lightbox, but I need more light and I need to work on my photoshop skills…

I plan to make more of these, so that I can get the pattern 100% and then offer it as a free pattern on my blog…

This is just the perfect size to carry your favourite book.

I spent some time on designing a label, but in the end I just gave up. I would like to use fabric pens to create labels as I tried hand sewing, but that is definitely not my strong point.

I have lined the book satchel bag with white percale cotton. It feels so luxurious. It was the first time that I have lined a bag, so not a bad first time effort.

One last image, just for good measure…

Note books are one of my favourite things in the whole wide world! I love that I have personalised my new note book, it is a little bulky, but it looks fabulous, don’t you think?

Bryanston Organic Market

On Saturday my husband and I went to the Bryanston Organic Market. I didn’t have my camera with me because it was a last minute decision, but I will definitely be going there again, so next time I will take some photos.

I was pleasantly surprised and a little disappointed. I was really intrigued by the quality of goods sold, especially the organically grown fruit and vegetables. But I longed to see some organic wool and hand-spun skeins. I would have blown my whole budget on them, but alas there was none to be found.

Well worth a repeat visit. The food stalls looked great, with such wholesome food. We had already eaten lunch, but next time I will make sure we have a meal there…

Happy Birthday Madonna

Tomorrow, 16 August 2008, is Madonna’s birthday. The “Queen of Pop” has always been a favourite of mine and I still can’t believe that she has lasted 25 years in the business. She constantly re-invents herself by pushing the boundries and never being complacent, dispite critisism. She does what she wants, how she wants and when she wants. I don’t necessarily want to do what she does, but she inspires me to always push for more…

Frozen (from ‘Ray of Light’ Album), is my favourite Madonna song and sometimes wish she would write more songs like this…

Happy Birthday, Maddy! One day I will have the priviledge of attending on of your Live Concerts…

A-Block-A-Week

Well, if you haven’t noticed, my little ‘a-block-a-week’ project has come to a standstill. This is because I have gone on some different paths in my life and this project is just not on one of them. I plan to do some other work with this wool that I have already knitted, so watch this space… things are happening in the background.

‘Sex in the City’ Culture

Every week I look forward to reading iafrica’s Kabous Le Roux’s personal finance newsletter. This week it was particularly good, so I thought I would share it with you…

“According to a recent government study, Australia’s ranks of affluent, working single women are amongst the least satisfied in that country. In fact, only very poor Australians — those struggling to find food and shelter — were less satisfied.

If you wonder why those women might be so unhappy, do yourself a non-favour and go watch ‘Sex and the City’ (SATC), a show/movie that is no doubt extremely popular amongst that particular demographic.

I was coerced into watching SATC last weekend and, although I tried to keep an open mind, was shocked to the core by the most vulgar display of materialism I’ve ever seen. The ‘ultimate chick flick’ is less about female liberation than it is about labels, designer dresses and lots and lots of shoes.

In one scene Carrie Bradshaw’s tall, dark and handsome ATM machine gives her a huge, walk-in closet with bright lighting, a lush carpet and more shelves than you can possibly imagine. Carrie’s jaw drops. Mr. Big grins like Cheshire Cat. ‘Oh my God! You did me proud!’

She thinks she’s happy. Sure, her man might be an arrogant, egocentric prick but at least she’s got enough room (for now) for the gazillion pairs of shoes she owns.

Research by ‘Friends Provident’ indicates that the SATC generation — women between 25 and 40 — are more likely to have 30 pairs of shoes than a retirement plan. Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda would be proud don’t you think?

In an American study researchers found not only a correlation between self-esteem and materialism, but also a causal relationship where low self esteem increases materialism and materialism caused low self-esteem.

SATC is bad for women. If you can tell the difference between SATC and real life, you’re fine. But millions of viewers can’t. Those characters are miserable and their habits should not be emulated. There might have been a time when their frank discussion about sex could be appreciated, but now they’re nothing more than walking advertisements that create entirely unrealistic expectations for their fans.

Until next week…

Kabous le Roux
Personal Finance and Property Editor

“…don’t cry, buy a bag and then get over it…what I know is that I’m always happy when I walk out the store…’cause I know that my credit card will help me put out the flames…” — excerpt from ‘Labels or Love’, theme song of Sex and the City by Fergie.”

I personally haven’t seen the movie because I thought the series, while a refreshing take on a sitcom, was not to my liking. I agree with every word Kabous wrote on the subject…

What are your thoughts?